The '90s was the great era of the Gloranthan fanzine, with Tales of the Reaching Moon (1989-2003) leading the way, followed by RuneQuest Adventures, Codex (1994-1995), New Lolon Gospel, The Book of Drastic Resolutions, and Tradetalk (1996-2009), as well as a variety of con magazines. They filled the gaps left by Avalon Hill's uneven attention to their "cadillac" roleplaying game.

But fanzines take time and effort, and by 2000 all but two of them had faded away, with Tradetalk and Tales of the Reaching Moon the last two standing — and Tales near the end of its run. However, that year also saw the debut of a new Glorantha game, Hero Wars (2000), and thus the opportunity for a new generation of fandom. The first Hero Wars fanzine was The Unspoken Word, announced in December 2000. It debuted in May 2001 with a thematic issue called "Tarsh in Flames!".

The Unspoken Word was the product of editors Simon Bray and Mark Galeotti. Bray was an author and artist who had been involved in fandom including the Reaching Moon Megacorp and the German RuneQuest Society and who would continue to support Moon Design Publications afterward. Galeotti's roleplaying design had been more scattered over the past decade, but he would go on to become the Acquisitions Director at Moon Design, critical to the post-Issaries era of HeroQuest publication.

As for The Unspoken Word: it was initially successful enough that the first issue went out-of-print within three months and had to be reprinted (2002). In all, it lasted somewhere between two and five issues, depending on what you count, as the principals quickly transitioned from magazine publication to supplement publication. The first two issues are clearly marked as "The Unspoken Word", while the third issue, In Wintertop's Shadow (2002), only notes itself as a magazine internally. Wintertop Fair (2004) and Sons of Kargzant (2004) could have been issues #4 and #5, and indeed follow the same SKU series as the three official issues. Wintertop Fair was a sequel adventure to the final numbered issue of The Unspoken Word while Sons of Kargzant was definitely laid out like a magazine, but missing article-by-article credits.

The middle two issues, In Wintertop's Shadow and Wintertop Fair, were authored by Ian Cooper (with continued support from Bray and Galeotti) and focused on the Tarsh Exiles and the Wintertop region. They originated with Cooper's work with Greg Stafford on Dragon Pass: A Gazetteer of Kerofinela (2003) for Issaries Inc. Stafford had written a bit about Harda Pass and Wintertop, and Cooper decided to expand the work, resulting first in an article for The Unspoken Word #1, then in those two complete issues. Cooper would later author the two-part campaign of The Coming Storm (2017) and The Eleven Lights (2018) for Chaosium based on other inspirations from that Dragon Pass work.

A few other issues of The Unspoken Word were advertised but never published, among them "Aldachur & The Far Place" (originally intended as #3), "War!" (originally intended as #4), "Imther: Edge of Empire" (originally intended as #5), "Secrets of the Char-Un" (originally intended as an e-book #6), "Under the Lash: Adventures in Fonrit", and "Joranit: Fortress of the North". Of them, "Edge of Empire" had a bit of history: it was originally produced as a supplement for Avalon Hill, with Harald Smith's work from New Lolon Gospel intended as a complement. When Avalon Hill's brief RQ Renaissance ended, and RuneQuest was ultimately replaced by Hero Wars, Smith reworked the material with support from Martin Crim (another fan-writer of the '90s) to become an issue of The Unspoken Word, but that sadly fell through as well.

The Unspoken Word also produced one Hero Wars book that was definitely a supplement and not a magazine, Uz: The Trolls of Glorantha (2001). Beyond that, they published a number of Gloranthan supplements not tied to any game system, including maps of various lands (including a very large map of the Lunar Empire), a CD-ROM of fold-up figures for play, and two fund-raising magazines, for Convulsion C02 and for Continuum 2004. They also sold books from the Greg Stafford Library outside of North America.

Like much of Gloranthan fandom, The Unspoken Word got caught up in Fan Publication Policy issues starting in 2004. When things settled in 2005, The Unspoken Word agreed to a license with Issaries and planned to return to publishing magazines (as opposed to supplements), but now in PDF form. Unfortunately, Bray and Galeotti were having troubles keeping The Unspoken Word going due to time constraints, including families and other projects such as Galeotti's work for Moon Design. The Unspoken Word never officially shut down, but its publications came to an end. Decades later, the Jonstown Compendium book Furthest: Crown Jewel of Lunar Tarsh (2023) would be a culmination of their Unspoken Word work (with more books in the series to come).

For more on The Unspoken Word, see pages 166-167 of MIG III: The Meints Index to Glorantha. For a return to Tarsh by Simon Bray and friends, see Furthest: Crown Jewel of Lunar Tarsh (2023) and for Harald Smith's Imther work, see Edge of Empire (2022), both from the Jonstown Compendium.

Unspoken Word Issues

• #1: Tarsh in Flames! (2001) [SKU #1001]
• #2: The Thieves' Arm (2002) [SKU #1002]
• #3: In Wintertop's Shadow (2002) [SKU #1003?]
• #WF: Wintertop Fair (2004) [SKU #1004]
• #SoK: Sons of Kargzant (2004) [SKU #1005]

Other Unspoken Word Products

• Uz: The Trolls of Glorantha (2001) [SKU #2001]
• Lunar Empire Map (2001)
• The Four Scrolls of Revelation (2002) [SKU #4001]
• Paper Wars: Dragon Pass at War CD-Rom (2003)
• Gloranthan Map Set (2003) [SKU #M01]
• Magnus Liber Rerum: The First Volume (2004)

Obtaining the Magazines

The Unspoken Word magazines are long out of print. They occasionally show up on eBay auctions, with the first two issues being the most common, and they tend to go for low-to-medium collectible prices. They're sometimes listed for outrageous prices as buy-it-nows and at other sites.

About the Contributors

The "Gang of Five" who wrote the articles in Sons of Kargzant are: Wesley Quadros, Martin Laurie, Simon Bray, Mark Galeotti, and Brand Robins.

This index is © Copyright 2024 by Shannon Appelcline. It is released under a cc-by-4.0 license, allowing reuse with attribution. Map background is courtesy of Chaosium, used per their fan material policy.